Azimuth adjustment on Atari 410 Casstte player.

[Verault]

I have a couple Atari 410 cassette decks I am trying to repair. I have already replaced the belts and ordered some rubber rejuvenator for good measure. I cannot get these drives to load 90% of my tapes. I seem to get error 143 most of the time. I want to make sure the azimuth is good, does anyone have the azimuth program on a disk image?

[TGB1718]

Atari_410_Program_Cassette_Recorder_Field_Service_Manual.pdf

In case you don't have this, might help

 

Also this

 

410 Program Recorder Tech Tip.pdf

Edited December 15, 2021 by TGB1718

[Verault]

Thank you. I will go over the material

 

[_The Doctor__]

also remember a clean and demagnetized head is helpful.. the still sell the all in one cleaner demagnetizers

 

many people clean them align them and never demagnetize... they are the ones who say all tape decks are unusable.

 

heads becoming slightly magnetized has been the case for all tape systems... when they don't get proper maintenance, they slowly damage the tape as well as the information on the tape due to slight coercion by the residual magnetic field... then the tape become the problem... a vicious circle...

 

That leaves you to do the proper maintenance and then to care for the tapes, sometimes blanking and re recording them.... for a fully functional tape archive and system.

 

The tape should be bulk erased before re recording otherwise you may have remnants of the old information, erase heads are not perfect so a one two punch can be helpful

Edited December 15, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[Verault]

Ill admit I am a novice to cassette repair. I can work on floppy drives all day long but Cassettes drives are something I dont have too much experience on. Can you recommend a cleaner demagnetizer? Id love to learn more.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Verault

[Mrshoujo]

Clean the rubber roller with Windex as it's nicer to the rubber than alcohol.

 

The head on the 410 is split channel stereo and simply playing a tape should help align it with the audio coming out of the TV or monitor.

 

After that, there should be a way to check the speed - hopefully not too much wow and flutter to affect loading from tape. The motor of the mechanism should have a hole in it if you need to adjust the speed. It could need lubricated. A drop of sewing machine or non detergent oil would do. Calibration tapes would help here and a meter but then high end audiophiles (like Techmoan on YouTube) are probably the only people with such things.

 

What you should be able to check is for crosstalk between the motor and the audio output of the 410. I hope they're isolated well.

[GRC7800]

On 12/15/2021 at 9:27 AM, _The Doctor__ said:

also remember a clean and demagnetized head is helpful.. the still sell the all in one cleaner demagnetizers

 

many people clean them align them and never demagnetize... they are the ones who say all tape decks are unusable.

 

heads becoming slightly magnetized has been the case for all tape systems... when they don't get proper maintenance, they slowly damage the tape as well as the information on the tape due to slight coercion by the residual magnetic field... then the tape become the problem... a vicious circle...

 

That leaves you to do the proper maintenance and then to care for the tapes, sometimes blanking and re recording them.... for a fully functional tape archive and system.

 

The tape should be bulk erased before re recording otherwise you may have remnants of the old information, erase heads are not perfect so a one two punch can be helpful

Hello, 

Is it possible for you to explain a little further about developing a fully functional tape archive and system? I'm interested in this process.

Thanks in advance!